Basic Trope: A character commits adultery without knowing it.
- Straight:
- Alice was involved with Bob, Bob went missing for a long time, and Alice mourned him enough and married Charlie – only for Bob to turn up alive.
- Claire discovers that seemingly eligible bachelor Bob is actually a married man with children.
- Exaggerated: Alice doesn't know what the word "adultery" means. Despite being married to Bob, she sleeps with everyone she meets and claims wide-eyed she's not an adulteress at all.
- Downplayed: Bob is missing in action for a long time. Alice marries Charlie, and later finds out that while Bob was killed, it happened chronologically after her marriage.
- Justified:
- Bob is missing for a long time, believed dead by pretty much everyone, and Alice wants to move on with her life.
- Alice and Bob are in an arranged marriage by proxy, so they've never met. Charlie comes to her and says he's Bob.
- Charlie can shape-shift and turns himself into Bob to get Alice.
- Either Charlie or Alice were brainwashed and/or mind-controlled.
- Inverted: Alice commits adultery with "Charlie" without knowing it's actually Bob in disguise.
- Subverted: Alice and Charlie tell everyone they didn't know Bob was alive, but it's a lie. Alice hooked up with Charlie as soon as Bob was out of sight, now they're just making it official.
- Double Subverted: Except that the Bob who went missing wasn't the Bob Alice got married to. It was Dylan in disguise, who exiled Bob to another universe years ago.
- Parodied: Alice and Charlie really stumble into bed accidentally.
- Lampshaded: "I've waited for fifteen years! You've never even tried to contact me! What did you expect?"
- Exploited: Charlie knows Bob is alive but keeps it secret and goes on Comforting the Widow anyway.
- Defied: "No, Charlie, I won't even try it. Bob promised me he'd return, and he never breaks his word."
